Topic: Groundwater

Overview

Groundwater

Unlike California’s majestic rivers and massive dams and conveyance systems, groundwater is out of sight and underground, though no less plentiful. The state’s enormous cache of underground water is a great natural resource and has contributed to the state becoming the nation’s top agricultural producer and leader in high-tech industries.

Groundwater is also increasingly relied upon by growing cities and thirsty farms, and it plays an important role in the future sustainability of California’s overall water supply. In an average year, roughly 40 percent of California’s water supply comes from groundwater.

A new era of groundwater management began in 2014 with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which requires local and regional agencies to develop and implement sustainable groundwater management plans with the state as the backstop.

Aquafornia news Arizona Daily Star (Tucson)

Groundwater replenishment left hanging by new Arizona law

A newly signed bill giving developers the ability to buy and retire farmland in favor of subdivisions has been hailed by supporters as the single biggest improvement in state water law since the landmark Arizona Groundwater Management Act passed 45 years ago. It’s been promoted as a ticket to water savings, since homes typically use significantly less water than cotton fields. It’s also seen as a path to more affordable housing in the Phoenix area and Pinal County, where the law would have an impact. … But what’s called the Ag to Urban law comes with a big question mark that centers on the often downplayed concept of groundwater replenishment. The law will significantly increase the amount of water that must be recharged into the aquifer to compensate for groundwater pumped by new homes that are built on retired farmland. As of now, it’s not clear where that extra water will come from. 

Other groundwater news across the West: 

Aquafornia news Public Policy Institute of California

Blog: Is dust on the rise in California?

… California has a semi-arid climate, with several desert and desert-like regions, including the southern San Joaquin Valley, the Mojave Desert, the Mono Lake region, and the Imperial Valley/Salton Sea area. When these locations experience strong winds, it mobilizes dust particles, and fallowing facilitates dust emission by exposing the surface to strong winds. These events will likely increase with rising temperatures. Human health is front of mind here: direct exposure to dust causes respiratory and cardiovascular issues and Valley fever. But there are other implications as well. We know, for instance, that dust impacts snowpack. Snow typically reflects a lot of solar energy back into space. However, any impurities on its surface can reduce that reflection. Dust-covered snow absorbs part of the solar energy, and the more that happens, the faster the snow melts. That can lead to earlier snowmelt and increased river runoff at the beginning of the season, potentially increasing water scarcity at the end of the growing season.

Other dust news:

Aquafornia news KJZZ (Phoenix, Ariz.)

Rural groundwater conservation plans failed this year in the GOP-controlled Arizona Legislature

At the beginning of the year, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs introduced a plan to conserve shrinking rural groundwater supplies. But that, and similar efforts, died in the GOP-controlled Legislature. In rural areas of the state, many communities rely on dwindling groundwater supplies where there are no restrictions on water pumping. Rural Republicans stood with Hobbs in January when she announced her plan to address the problem by creating rural management areas around endangered groundwater basins where pumping would be restricted. But it didn’t get consideration by legislative Republicans. Hobbs said Tuesday she hasn’t given up. “We made progress and we’ve clearly shown the support for this kind of legislation exists across the state and that rural Arizonans want something done and we’ll continue to find a way to get that done,” she said.

Other Arizona water law news:

Aquafornia news CalMatters

Opinion: How Calif. can close a loophole stalling groundwater plans

California is at a groundwater management crossroads as legal loopholes threaten to undo the state’s progress toward responsible groundwater sustainability. At the core of this legal conflict are two legal processes. The first is the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, the landmark law passed in 2014 to bring order to overdrafting of basins and ensure long-term sustainability of the state’s groundwater resources. The second is groundwater adjudications, a legal tool to determine water rights of who can pump water and how much they can use. … Assembly Bill 1413 is sensible, straightforward legislation that would strengthen the state’s efforts to manage this precious resource. AB 1413 is intended to protect the right to challenging a sustainability plan, but at the same time, preserve the integrity of the groundwater law’s process and provide clarity to judges in adjudications.
–Written by Scott Hayman, chair of the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority.

Aquafornia news SFGate

California is full of hidden reservoirs. These mystics find them.

On a recent sunny Monday morning, 85-year-old Doug Brown pulled up to a breakfast joint in Willits in his white pickup. Bold white letters on the tinted camper shell window spelled out “Water Witcher,” with Brown’s phone number written just below. Inside the truck was a quiver of wire rods, each tipped with different metals or materials, to be used for Brown’s practice of an archaic tradition: water dowsing. In an age defined by dry spells and dwindling resources, an unlikely group continues to quietly deploy their centuries-old practice in search of water. Called dowsers, water witchers or diviners, members of this eclectic guild claim they can locate the Earth’s hidden reservoirs using primitive technology and intuition, all for a price. 

Aquafornia news Courthouse News Service

Arizona approves ‘Ag-to-Urban’ water conservation plan

In a bipartisan compromise between state lawmakers and the executive branch, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs approved a program estimated to conserve nearly 10 million acre-feet of water and facilitate thousands of new housing developments across central Arizona. State Senator T.J. Shope’s Senate Bill 1611 met Hobbs’ pen Monday morning, setting in motion what state officials refer to as the “Ag-to-Urban” plan. … Under the program, farmers in either of the active management areas would voluntarily relinquish groundwater rights on individual acres of land irrigated by groundwater in three of the previous five years. In exchange, a farmer would receive conservation credits based on the number of acres relinquished. The farmer would then sell the acres to land developers, who would “pledge” the credits to a water provider that services that land. 

Related articles:

Aquafornia news The Business Journal (Fresno, Calif.)

Opinion: Using fallowed ag land for solar farms opens training, job opportunities for local workers

In all the talk about the San Joaquin Valley’s groundwater restrictions and resulting loss of agriculture, it’s important to consider how transitioning from farming operations to clean-energy production creates construction job opportunities for thousands of area workers. The mandate to meet state clean energy goals by 2045 — and the loss of farmland due to groundwater restrictions under the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act — have opened the door to a vast solar resource that can keep land economically productive and local people employed in good jobs for the long term. But current law makes these land transitions cumbersome and complicated, hampering the region’s potential to become a solar energy hub. If corrected, the switch from unusable farmland to low-water-use, clean energy projects would generate billions in tax revenue and labor income while lowering household electric bills and cleaning up our air.

Other agriculture and water use news:

Aquafornia news SJV Water

Monday Top of the Scroll: Kaweah is second San Joaquin Valley groundwater basin to escape state enforcement

The Kaweah subbasin is the second San Joaquin Valley region to successfully escape state intervention, managers learned today.  In a phone call with state Water Resources Control Board staff, managers of Kaweah’s three groundwater sustainability agencies got the news that their efforts to rewrite their groundwater management plans were good enough for staff to recommend that they return to Department of Water Resources oversight. … The Chowchilla subbasin successfully made the u-turn from state enforcement back to oversight in early June. Fukuda said Kaweah will follow much the same path as Chowchilla. The Water Board will consider the staff recommendation for Kaweah at a meeting in the fall, when it can pass a resolution formally sending Kaweah back to DWR. Returning to DWR oversight guarantees landowners freedom from additional fees under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which mandates that overdraft stop and aquifers reach balance by 2040. 

Other groundwater regulation news:

Aquafornia news UC Agriculture and Natural Resources

Blog: How is SGMA affecting growers’ planting and drilling decisions?

California is now ten years into a revolution in groundwater management. In 2014, the state passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) which requires newly formed local groundwater sustainability agencies to develop long-term plans to reduce overdraft by 2040. To date, more than 250 local agencies have written and begun implementing groundwater sustainability plans, with more than 100 plans in action. This has taken enormous effort and represents a significant departure from the prior status quo for groundwater management in California. Many wonder, however, if SGMA is affecting behavior around the use of the groundwater resource yet. Are farmers making decisions around planting or drilling new groundwater wells with future SGMA reductions in mind? If so, are they switching away from permanent crops that may not have available water through 2040? We set out to answer those questions with publicly available data. 

Aquafornia news SJV Water

Kern River plaintiff alleges region’s groundwater plan ignores harm to river flows

In a comment letter to the state Water Resources Control Board, one of the plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuit over Kern River flows alleges information has been withheld from the region’s groundwater plan to the detriment of the river. Water Audit California states a number of entities, including the City of Bakersfield and its main drinking water purveyor California Water Services, “…failed to disclose the adverse impacts that their groundwater extraction is having on interconnected surface waters, thereby causing injury to the public trust and its biological components,” according to the June 20 letter. … Water Audit contends that diverting Kern River water into groundwater recharge basins that are then pumped for drinking water, creates an interconnectivity that may affect stream flows. … Kern’s plan states that there are no areas of interconnectivty in the subbasin per the definition under SGMA regulations, which is that there must be a continuous connection between underground and overlying surface water. 

Other groundwater news:

Aquafornia news The Hill

Wednesday Top of the Scroll: Newsom warns California isn’t ready for water scarcity

California’s existing groundwater infrastructure may fail to quench the state’s thirst in an increasingly arid future, even as officials celebrate widespread conservation achievements, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) warned on Tuesday. “The data doesn’t lie, and it is telling us that our water system is unprepared for California’s hotter and drier climate,” Newsom said in a statement. The governor was referring to data published in a semiannual report by the California Department of Water Resources that morning. The report, which indicated California is collecting more groundwater data than ever before, showed a 2.2 million acre-foot increase in storage last year. Nonetheless, the governor’s office stressed that the Golden State still lacks adequate water infrastructure to provide Californians with the resources they will need in future projected climate conditions.

Other California groundwater news:

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

Tuesday Top of the Scroll: California achieved significant groundwater recharge last year

A year of average precipitation gave California’s groundwater supplies a significant boost, according to a state analysis released Tuesday. California’s aquifers gained an estimated 2.2 million acre-feet of groundwater in the 12 months that ended Sept. 30, the state’s 2024 water year. That’s about half the storage capacity of Shasta Lake, California’s largest reservoir. State officials said local agencies reported that about 1.9 million acre-feet of water went underground as a result of managed aquifer recharge projects designed to capture stormwater and replenish groundwater. … Gov. Gavin Newsom said California is collecting more groundwater data than it has previously, and is continuing to prioritize efforts to recharge aquifers. He said, however, that the state’s water infrastructure is unprepared for the effects of climate change, and he reiterated his support for building a water tunnel beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Other groundwater news:

Aquafornia news The Center Square

Ariz. House considers ‘Ag to Urban bill’ after Senate’s passage

The Arizona House is taking up the so-called “Ag to Urban bill.” The Senate approved the bipartisan measure Thursday. Also known as Senate Bill 1611, the measure provides what Senate Natural Resources Chair Thomas “T.J.” Shope calls solutions to Arizona’s most pressing issues: groundwater protection and skyrocketing home prices due to low supply. Under the bill, farmers would be allowed to sell their land and water rights to developers who will in turn build for-sale housing to meet the needs of Arizona’s growing population. In a press release, Shope, who’s also the Senate president pro tempore, called this “the most consequential piece of groundwater legislation” in decades. ”An analysis of the Ag-to-Urban program by the Arizona Department of Water Resources reveals our state will save 9.6-million-acre feet of water over the next 100 years,” said the Republican senator.

Other Arizona groundwater news:

Aquafornia news Capitol Media Services (Phoenix)

New deal on Ag-to-Urban water plan moving in Senate

Housing developers left stranded and stalled by a lack of an assured water supply are getting a lifeline under a deal cut between Republicans and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.  The proposal, known as “Ag-to-Urban,” allows homebuilders to buy water rights from farmers who retire their agricultural land if they promise to use only a certain percentage of the water to supply new developments. … The deal immediately affects only Maricopa and Pinal counties, but the Pima County Active Management Area may also fall under its guidance if a moratorium on new water certificates is put in place by state water regulators, (Sen. T.J.) Shope said. If all three areas were included, more than 400,000 acres of farmland could be eligible for conversion. … While big developers are celebrating a win, elected officials in rural Arizona are criticizing Hobbs for backing the proposal without tying it to new protections for groundwater in their areas. 

Other Arizona groundwater news:

Aquafornia news Politico

Trump admin eyes Mojave Desert groundwater as potential source for arid Arizona

… After trying and failing for more than two decades to pump ancient groundwater from beneath the Mojave Desert and sell it to Southern California water districts, the controversial company (Cadiz) has set its sights on new customers over the border in the Grand Canyon State. … On Monday, the Interior Department announced plans to sign a memorandum of understanding with the latest incarnation of the project, called the Mojave Groundwater Bank, touting it as “an important tool to improve drought resiliency in the Colorado River Basin” though recognizing that it is only in “early development.” And on Tuesday, the Trump administration official leading Colorado River negotiations for the federal government suggested to water power players in Arizona that they consider the project. … Opponents of the project, including conservation groups who say it could harm sensitive desert ecosystems, still see it as the same old concept.

Other desert water news:

Aquafornia news SJV Water

Proposed new groundwater fee structure has Tulare County farmers crying foul

Tulare County farmers are incensed by a proposed new fee structure that they say will put the entire burden of state groundwater oversight across the San Joaquin Valley solely on their shoulders. It costs the state Water Resources Control Board about $5.5 million a year to oversee six basins in the San Joaquin Valley that have been found to have inadequate groundwater plans as part of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Two of those subbasins have been placed on probation, under which farmers are required to pay fees to reimburse the state for those oversight costs. One of those subbasins has, so far, escaped the fees pending the outcome of a legal action. … At a June 11 online Water Board workshop, staff unveiled a new fee structure they say will repay state costs and protect small farmers. Tule subbasin farmers say the proposed fee structure, expected to raise $6.6 million, is unfair.

Other water and agriculture news:

Aquafornia news SFGate

Map shows which 16M acres of Calif. public lands eligible for sale in GOP bill

As the Senate continues to comb through the Big Beautiful Bill, 258 million acres of public land across the western U.S., including large swaths of California, could soon be eligible for sale. A map published by the Wilderness Society, a nonprofit land conservation organization, reveals which parcels of land across 11 states would be up for grabs, in accordance with the land sale proposal detailed by Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah and the chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. If the budget is passed by the July 4 deadline, an estimated 16 million acres in California are at risk of being sold over the next five years. Those vulnerable parcels of land include areas adjacent to Yosemite National Park, Mount Shasta, Big Sur and Lake Tahoe. … In all, up to 3 million acres across all states would be authorized to be sold out of 258 million eligible acres across the West.

Other public land sale news:

Aquafornia news Manteca Bulletin (Calif.)

Opinion: If it wasn’t for water plus South San Joaquin Irrigation District securing & developing it, Manteca would be wide spot in the road like Milton

… Eastern San Joaquin County, like the rest of the Central Valley, is facing an uncertain future due to the looming state groundwater mandate that requires basins not to pump more water from an aquifer than is replenished in a given year. It is safe to say Milton will feel the pain when it comes big time. To prevent a similar fate, the SSJID has developed a long range water plan critical in its fight to keep the state from ignoring historical front-of-the-line legally adjudicated water rights to commandeer water from the Stanislaus River basin to use as they see fit. That, coupled with the groundwater mandate, would have a major negative impact on Manteca, Ripon, Escalon and the surrounding countryside as well as Lathrop and Tracy. While it wouldn’t send the South County back to the 1880s, it would still be devastating. And if you think this is only a problem for farmers, guess again. Choke off the water supply based on average or above average precipitation years, and you will devalue existing homes.
–Written by Manteca Bulletin editor Dennis Wyatt.

Other groundwater news:

Aquafornia news AP News

Arizona farm raising fish prompts water use questions

In the desert of landlocked Arizona, where the Colorado River crisis has put water use under a microscope, Mainstream Aquaculture has a fish farm where it’s growing the tropical species barramundi, also known as Asian sea bass, for American restaurants. … But some experts question whether growing fish on a large scale in an arid region can work without high environmental costs. That question comes down to what people collectively decide is a good use of water. … The farm uses groundwater, not Colorado River water. … Arizona has seven areas around the state where groundwater is rigorously managed. Dateland doesn’t fall into one of those, so the only rule that really governs it is a law saying if you land own there, you can pump a “reasonable” amount of groundwater. … What might be considered “reasonable” depends from crop to crop, and there’s really no precedent for aquaculture, an industry that hasn’t yet spread commercially statewide.

Other water use and conservation news:

Aquafornia news The Hill

Federal judge tasks Port of Los Angeles with cleaning up contaminated water

The Port of Los Angeles will need to clean up widespread water contamination in the city’s harbor by shoring up sewage treatment operations, according to a settlement approved by a federal judge. The settlement was the result of a lawsuit filed by the organization Environment California last summer accusing the port of violating the Clean Water Act by unleashing toxic pollutants into the San Pedro Bay. The group maintained that the port had conducted more than 2,000 illegal wastewater discharges in the previous five years alone — releases that routinely surpassed limits on fecal bacteria, copper and other contaminants. The settlement approved on Tuesday tasks the port with improving its management and treatment of stormwater and groundwater, through provisions requiring the elimination of fecal bacteria from the groundwater. 

Related articles:

Aquafornia news New Scientist

The arid air of Death Valley may actually be a valuable water source

A small panel managed to extract a glassful of clean water from the bone-dry air of Death Valley in California, which suggests that the device could provide the vital resource to arid regions. The atmosphere over extremely dry land can hold large volumes of water, but extracting this in significant quantities without power is difficult. In the past, researchers have come up with innovative ways to tap into this reservoir, such as fog-catching nets made from simple mesh fabrics or spider silk-like artificial fibres, but they have struggled to make them work effectively in real-world conditions. Now, Xuanhe Zhao at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his colleagues have developed a power-free water-collecting device that is about 0.5 metres tall and 0.1 m across. It is comprised of a glass panel that contains an absorbent hydrogel, a jelly-like substance made from long-chain polymers, and lithium salts that can store water molecules.

Aquafornia news San Francisco Chronicle

Wednesday Top of the Scroll: California’s massive dam removal hit a key milestone. Now, there’s a problem

Last year, after the historic removal of four dams on the Klamath River, thousands of salmon rushed upstream into the long-blocked waters along the California-Oregon border, seeking out the cold, plentiful flows considered crucial to the fish’s future. The return of salmon to their ancestral home was a fundamental goal of dam removal and a measure of the project’s success. However, a problem emerged. The returning salmon only got so far. Eight miles upriver from the former dam sites lies a still-existing dam, the 41-foot-tall Keno Dam in southern Oregon. The dam has a fish ladder that’s supposed to help with fish passage, but it didn’t prove to work. While many proponents of dam removal say they’re thrilled with just how far the salmon got, most of the 420 miles of waterways that salmon couldn’t reach before the dam demolition still appear largely unreachable. 

Other dam removal news:

Aquafornia news SJV Water

Pending state subsidence guidelines give valley water managers sinking feeling

New subsidence guidelines from the Department of Water Resources are expected to drop on San Joaquin Valley water managers any day, a prospect that has them both hopeful and worried. The intent of the guidelines is to provide clarity within the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which requires overdrafted regions to enact plans to bring aquifers into balance by 2040. One of SGMA’s primary goals is to halt subsidence, land sinking. Excessive groundwater pumping has caused huge swaths of the San Joaquin Valley to sink, damaging canals, roads and increasing flood risks. Some areas have collapsed on such a large scale, the phenomenon can be seen from space, earning the nickname  “the Corcoran bowl.” Subsidence, though, has been a tricky devil to manage. 

Other groundwater and subsidence news:

Aquafornia news Inside Climate News

Two federal cases keep fight to save Oak Flat (Ariz.) alive

A federal judge ruled Monday that the U.S. Forest Service cannot transfer land containing Oak Flat, a site sacred to the Western Apache, to a copper mining company until two cases against the project are settled after the Forest Service publishes its final environmental review for the project. … The legal battle over Oak Flat, known in Apache as Chi’chil Biłdagoteel, has been one of the most high-profile mining cases in the country over the past decade. … It would … use as much water each year as the city of Tempe, home to Arizona State University and 190,000 people. It would pull water from the same tapped-out aquifer the Phoenix metro area relies on, where Arizona has prohibited more extraction except for exempted uses like mines. 

Related articles:

Aquafornia news California Department of Water Resources

Video: What is subsidence and how does it impact the ground beneath our feet

You may have heard of the term subsidence but what does it mean? Subsidence is the sinking of land which can be caused by various factors including groundwater pumping. In California, subsidence has been documented for over a century and is a growing issue that impacts our water infrastructure and the communities who rely on it. This summer, DWR plans to release a draft best management practices document to help local agencies minimize subsidence impacts around the state. For more information about DWR’s efforts to sustainable manage groundwater and reduce the impacts of subsidence visit DWR’s Groundwater Management page.

Aquafornia news SJV Water

Small Kings County city jumps in the ring in legal fight against state Water Board

The small city of Lemoore recently joined the legal fight against the powerful state Water Resources Control Board over groundwater sanctions issued against Kings County farmers by the state last year. The Lemoore City Council on May 22 submitted an “amicus brief,” or friend of the court motion, in support of an injunction that has, so far, held those groundwater sanctions at bay.  The injunction was ordered by a Kings County Superior Court judge as part of a lawsuit filed against the Water Board by the Kings County Farm Bureau. The state appealed the injunction, which is now under review by the 5th District Court of Appeal. … Because of that injunction, local farmers have avoided having to meter and register their wells at $300 each, report extractions and pay $20 per acre foot pumped to the state. The sanctions were issued after the Water Board placed the region on probationary status in April 2024 for not having an adequate groundwater plan.

Aquafornia news SJV Water

Wednesday Top of the Scroll: Chowchilla groundwater subbasin earns “get out of jail card” from State Water Board

The state Water Resources Control Board Tuesday passed a resolution to send the Chowchilla subbasin back under the purview of the Department of Water Resources. So far, it is the only subbasin of seven in the San Joaquin Valley to have succeeded in making the U-turn away from potential probationary status.  Water Board members noted that early engagement from Chowchilla’s four groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) was key. … The Chowchilla subbasin has experienced more than five feet of subsidence in the last decade alone, especially in its western portion where a significant layer of Corcoran clay exists. In its newest groundwater plan, managers cranked down allowable groundwater pumping with both voluntary and mandatory policies, capping subsidence rates at two feet in 2025, with a goal of zero subsidence after 2040. 

Other groundwater news:

Aquafornia news KERO (Bakersfield, Calif.)

Local workshops aim to protect Kern’s water future

… Local agencies are hosting community workshops to explain how the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act works—and why it matters to you. The act, also known as SGMA, is a California law that requires local water agencies to manage groundwater to prevent overuse and water scarcity. … Dan Bartel, Engineer Manager at RRB, says: “SGMA requires that we coordinate not just amongst the public agencies, but with the public—because in the public, there are so many private pumpers. We’re required to get input from those beneficial users and incorporate their opinions, thoughts, questions, and concerns into our plans so we can, as a community, reach sustainability by 2040.” Starting last summer, GSAs held workshops across Kern County. More recently, they’ve been hosting pop-up events—going to the community rather than waiting for the community to come to them.

Aquafornia news ABC7 (San Francisco)

New high-tech maps developed by Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability could fast track groundwater recharge

Researchers at Stanford are hoping to jump start a water revolution in California. The goal is to rapidly expand the areas where we store water – not by building reservoirs, but by returning millions of gallons back into the ground in a new and efficient way. … A recent study found the elevation of San Jose has risen slightly over the decades, while dozens of other cities around the country are steadily sinking. One common factor is groundwater. … Valley Water manages a sophisticated system of ponds and groundwater injection wells to help replenish the area’s aquifers. While sites, like the Laguna Seca basin at Coyote Valley are being conserved as open space, allowing additional stormwater to sink into the water table. These are long term strategies that are paying off. … And now, researchers at Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability are hoping to use ground-breaking technology to expand groundwater recharge across California’s Central Valley. 

Other groundwater and subsidence news:

Aquafornia news San Luis Obispo Tribune (Calif.)

Calif. farmers, wineries face water use fees in Paso Basin

From farmers to winemakers, commercial irrigators pumping from the Paso Robles Area Groundwater Basin may soon need to pay for their water use. On Tuesday, the Paso Robles Area Groundwater Authority voted unanimously to send notices of the proposed rates to impacted property owners, giving them the opportunity to protest the fees. If a majority of recipients submit a written protest, the agency can’t implement the rates. The California Department of Water Resources considers the basin “critically overdrafted.” Users pumped about 25,500 acre-feet of water more than was returned to the underground reservoir in 2024, according to the most recent annual report on the basin. … The fees would fund administrative tasks like monitoring wells and writing annual reports along with programs designed to balance the basin. If passed, the rate structure will last for five years.

Aquafornia news SJV Water

Friant Water Authority agrees to replacement pump stations for district that’s suing it, but adds strings

Fallout from the ongoing who-owes-what dispute over the still sinking Friant-Kern Canal led to some awkward and very carefully worded moments during a meeting to discuss replacement pump stations. At its May 22 meeting, the Friant Water Authority ultimately voted to restart the bidding process to build four replacement pump stations to deliver water from the canal to the Saucelito Irrigation District. But the board added some strings. It will only start construction if: Litigation filed by Saucelito and its sister districts, Porterville and Terra Bella, regarding the “Cost Recovery Methodology” was resolved through a settlement or verdict; Friant had sufficient cash on hand and certainty of funding sources necessary to cover future payments for the parallel canal and pump stations. The vote elicited a mixed reaction.

Aquafornia news Record Searchlight (Redding, Calif.)

Tehama finds land is sinking in Red Bluff, Corning areas after drought

Parts of Tehama County, including around Red Bluff, Corning and Antelope, are sinking, officials have discovered, prompting an emergency meeting to decide next steps to intervene. In a statement announcing the June 3 meeting, county officials said they found the mid- to southwestern part of Tehama had “observable land subsidence on a scale that has never been recorded.” … In Tehama County, some of the area’s groundwater dried up during years of heavy drought, according to the announcement. The soil is now collapsing into the cavity left by the absent water, making the ground above it sink. Other factors are further stressing what’s left of the underground water supply, according to the county. These include changes in agricultural practices and less surface water available from lakes, creeks and other water bodies.

Aquafornia news AP News

Arizona’s rural groundwater deal stalls as legislative session nears end

Arizona’s governor and the GOP-controlled Legislature are at odds over regulating groundwater pumping in the state’s rural areas — and time is running out. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs stood with local Republican leaders at the start of this year’s session, optimistic that Republicans in the Legislature would embrace her proposal to create rural groundwater management areas. But almost four months later, talks have stalled and frustration has mounted as both sides try to find a solution to conserve water that’s increasingly becoming more scarce amid a prolonged drought. Negotiators have not met since early April, Hobbs’ office said. Around the same time, Republicans and some interest groups grew frustrated with a separate proposal by the Arizona Department of Water Resources to slash overdraft in the Willcox Basin by a percentage that is “unattainable,” said Sen. Tim Dunn, one of the Republican negotiators.

Other Arizona water news:

Aquafornia news The Guardian (London, U.K.)

Colorado River basin has lost nearly the equivalent of an underground Lake Mead

The Colorado River basin has lost 27.8m acre-feet of groundwater in the past 20 years, an amount of water nearly equivalent to the full capacity of Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, a new study has found. The research findings, based on Nasa satellite imagery from across the south-west, highlight the scale of the ongoing water crisis in the region, as both groundwater and surface water are being severely depleted. … With less visibility has come less regulation: California only instituted statewide management of its groundwater in 2014, and before that, groundwater use was largely unregulated. Arizona, which has seen big groundwater decreases, still does not regulate groundwater usage in the majority of the state. … Since 2015, the basin has been losing freshwater at a rate three times faster than in the decade before, driven mostly by groundwater depletion in Arizona.

Related articles:

Aquafornia news SJV Water

Kern water agency to be co-managed after leadership shakeup

The Kern County Water Agency named two longtime employees to run the powerful entity after the board let its general manager go just one month before his contract was set to expire. Administrative Operations Manager Nick Pavletich and State Water Project Manager Craig Wallace will co-manage the agency while a recruitment committee begins the search for a new general manager. The two were named as interim managers after a special meeting held Tuesday morning. Pavletich, who has been with the agency for 24 years, will oversee local activities. Wallace, who has worked at the agency a little more than 10 years, will oversee the agency’s statewide activities with a focus on the Delta Conveyance Project, a tunnel proposed to bring water beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The agency board also announced it would form an advisory committee of board members to work with the co-managers “to ensure stability.”

Aquafornia news Ag Alert

Agencies race to fix plans to sustain groundwater levels

Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater. With groundwater sustainability agencies formed and groundwater sustainability plans evaluated, the state water board has moved to implement the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA. … Under probation, groundwater extractors in the Tulare Lake subbasin face annual fees of $300 per well and $20 per acre-foot pumped, plus a late reporting fee of 25%. SGMA also requires well owners to file annual groundwater extraction reports.

Aquafornia news Office of Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria

News release: Assemblywoman Soria introduces bill to boost groundwater recharge

Last week, Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria introduced AB 2060 to help divert local floodwater into regional groundwater basins. AB 2060 seeks to streamline the permitting process to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in support of Flood-MAR activities when a stream or river has reached flood-monitor or flood stage as determined by the California Nevada River Forecast Center or the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB). This expedited approval process would be temporary during storm events with qualifying flows under the SWRCB permit.

Related article: 

Aquafornia news SJV Water

Farmers in Tulare County to test groundwater market they hope could help keep them in business and replenish the aquifer

How will selling groundwater help keep more groundwater in the San Joaquin Valley’s already critically overtapped aquifers? Water managers in the Kaweah subbasin in northwestern Tulare County hope to find out by having farmers tinker with a pilot groundwater market program. Kaweah farmers will be joining growers from subbasins up and down the San Joaquin Valley who’ve been looking at how water markets might help them maintain their businesses by using pumping allotments and groundwater credits as assets to trade or sell when water is tight.

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